Assembling firearms is a required skill in the shooting class. I heard through inside sources that shooting is also part of this competition, but I'm not sure how much weight it carries. Training wouldn't hurt you.
Xu An looked at the parts in front of her, her head bowed in silence, contemplating something.
After Zhou Haimei had been talking for a while, she noticed Xu An staring blankly at the parts and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Why are you telling me this kind of inside information?"
"Are you suspecting I have ulterior motives?" Zhou Haimei used her slender fingers, tipped with red nail polish, to lift Xu An's chin. "I do have ulterior motives."
Xu An's brow furrowed slightly as Zhou Haimei provocatively lifted her chin. She disliked such close contact, but as Zhou Haimei whispered in her ear, her ear tips couldn't help but blush.
"Call me 'good sister' and let me hear it~" Zhou Haimei's low voice was alluring and lingering.
Xu An: "......"
Zhou Haimei watched the blush on Xu An's ear tips spread to her neck, realizing the child was too easily flustered. She withdrew her hand and chuckled, "I won't tease you anymore~"
"This is indeed inside information, and you don't need to feel burdened by it. If you must ask for a reason, maybe it's because you're very cute?"
Xu An's frown deepened as she listened to the explanation.
Zhou Haimei burst into laughter, "You catch my eye. Why do you have to clarify everything? It's the apocalypse, little sister. Just do whatever you want. If you feel too indebted, then you can be my sparring partner from now on."
Hearing "sparring partner," Xu An's brow finally relaxed. She had always disliked owing others favors, and Zhou Haimei had helped her immensely today.
If Zhou Haimei asked for nothing in return, Xu An wouldn't be able to sleep soundly tonight, let alone consider Zhou Haimei's intentions.
Every word Zhou Haimei spoke seemed reasonable, but suspicion had become a habit for Xu An, causing her to subconsciously suspect everyone who tried to get close to her of having ulterior motives.
Xu An didn't mind people having motives; everyone had motives, especially in the apocalypse.
Motives led to mutual benefit.
With that, Zhou Haimei walked directly to Xu An's side, looking at the parts on the table with a hint of triumph on her lips. "Watch closely."
As soon as she finished speaking, Zhou Haimei's hands moved like blurs. Xu An couldn't even tell how the parts were assembled before a complete handgun appeared before her.
"Amazing, right!"
Xu An nodded, a hint of a helpless smile on her face. "Very amazing." She felt like Zhou Haimei was a little wild cat that needed to be petted.
It seemed Zhou Haimei became exceptionally happy with praise.
"Come here, I'll teach you."
Xu An nodded and walked over, carefully listening as Zhou Haimei explained how to assemble the gun parts.
Zhou Haimei stood behind Xu An, holding her hands and guiding her step by step.
Xu An felt the warmth from behind her and subtly blushed.
...
The boss walked by, glancing resentfully at Xu An and Zhou Haimei's retreating figures, muttering something under his breath.
The training hall seemed exceptionally lively today due to Xu An's presence.
He had also watched the match between Xu An and Zhou Haimei. He initially thought Xu An's participation was just a whim of a young girl, but he didn't expect her skills to be so good.
He walked and pondered, bypassing the training hall and heading towards a secret passage behind a door.
...
"Captain, why did you pull me back just now? Didn't you say you had something to ask Xu An?" Zhou Zhe looked at his captain in confusion.
When they encountered Xu An in the training hall, Zhou Zhe was about to call out, but Qin Chuan interrupted him, pulling him away without a pause.
"Someone is following us," Qin Chuan said, his brow furrowing instinctively as if displeased with the current situation.
"Ah!" Zhou Zhe exclaimed, looking around vigilantly. "Following us? Who? They're too bold!"
"It's likely related to the previous investigation of life signs. They must have found out that the third person present was a resident of the lighthouse."
Zhou Zhe finally understood and slapped his thigh. "No wonder Xia Jin let us go so easily. They're playing the long game, waiting to see who we contact on the lighthouse, so they can follow the clues to find Xu An?"
Qin Chuan gave him a look that said he wasn't entirely foolish.
"But Captain, there were four people present at the time, Ana was there too. Why did they say there were only three people present?"
"Think about it, among the people present, what is something that exists on the lighthouse but Ana doesn't have?"
Zhou Zhe followed Qin Chuan's line of reasoning and, after thinking for a long time, hesitantly guessed, "...Could it be the identity card?"
After much thought, that seemed to be the only answer.
"The lighthouse must have done something to the identity cards. That so-called life detector is most likely just nonsense," Qin Chuan said with a stern voice.
When the old man assigned him to help Xia Jin, he had warned him before leaving that although Xia Jin was talented, he was morally corrupt, and Qin Chuan didn't need to handle everything personally.
Qin Chuan initially dismissed it and worked diligently for Xia Jin. Later, he accidentally stumbled upon Xia Jin's laboratory and began to have reservations about Xia Jin's experiments.
A room filled with specimens of various animal and human organs preserved in formalin caused Qin Chuan physical discomfort.
The rabbit-headed monster was not the first hybrid of human and rabbit that Qin Chuan had seen.
However, it was the first hybrid with independent consciousness and the ability to attack others.
In Xia Jin's laboratory, there was also a secret door, behind which were countless grafted monster bodies.
But those grafted bodies had no life, like dilapidated dolls with their heads and bodies separated and reassembled.
The sight was horrifying.
When he first saw a living, human-attacking rabbit-headed monster, he almost thought that crazy Xia Jin had activated the monsters in that laboratory and released them.
However, upon closer inspection, he realized there was a difference.
Xia Jin's laboratory's grafted bodies were combinations of normal animals and humans, or animals and animals.
But the rabbit-headed monster was a reanimated human and animal...
Zhou Zhe's voice interrupted Qin Chuan's thoughts, "Then, whenever we go out on a mission, aren't we being monitored all the time?" His voice rose slightly, tinged with surprise.
Qin Chuan cast him a cool glance. "Keep your voice down. Walls have ears."
Only a "naive fool" like Zhou Zhe would believe in the nonsense of "mutual trust."